I have pointed out already that the municipalisation of
monopolies, a typically Fabian process, had its origin decades before
the Society was founded, and all that the Fabian Society did was to
explain its social implications and advocate its wider extension. The
same is true of the whole Fabian political policy. Socialism in English
politics grew up because of the necessity for State intervention in the
complex industrial and social organisation of a Great State. Almost
before the evil results of Laissez Faire had culminated Robert Owen was
pointing the way to factory legislation, popular education, and the
communal care of children. The Ten Hours Act of 1847 was described by
Marx himself as "the victory of a principle," that is, of "the political
economy of the working class."[46] That victory was frequently repeated
in the next thirty years, and collective protection of Labour in the
form of Factory Acts, Sanitary Acts, Truck Acts, Employers' Liability
Acts, and Trade Board Acts became a recognised part of the policy of
both political parties.
Fabian teaching has had more direct influence in promoting the
administrative protection of Labour. The Fair Wages policy, now
everywhere prevalent in State and Municipal employment, was, as has been
already described, if not actually invented, at any rate largely
popularised by the Society. It was a working-class demand, and it has
been everywhere put forward by organised labour, but its success would
have been slower had the manual workers been left to fight their own
battle.
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